How do I shell pistachios without breaking my fingernails?

December 14, 2022 7:30 PM

I tried a regular heavy-duty stainless steel nutcracker and ended up with pieces of shell and pistachio all over me.

I like to eat pistachios but I keep breaking my fingernails trying to pry open the semi-closed ones. Shelled pistachios are too expensive.

I tried a nutcracker but it ended up with pieces flying all over the room and the kernel broken. It was sheer overkill.

Does anyone know an easy way to shell pistachios? I tried inserting spent shells in the crack as suggested by the internet but it didn't work well.

This tool was suggested but it is expensive and the Amazon reviews state that it is flimsy and rusted easily.

posted by whitelotus to Food & Drink (29 answers total)

I open the pistachio shells by wedging the meat of my thumb, not a fingernail, into the crack. Any nuts that don't yield to that method get tossed. fwiw, the Kirkland brand pistachios I buy at Costco have the lowest percentage of unopenable shells of any brand I've tried.
posted by DrGail at 7:36 PM on December 14, 2022 [2 favorites]

I've used needle-nosed pliers to gently squeeze them a little so that the shells separate and I can open them the rest of the way manually.
posted by Blue Jello Elf at 7:37 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

Use the half shell from the easy ones to open the more difficult ones, just twist. If there's no crack at all, throw it away, it is not worth it.
posted by BoscosMom at 7:46 PM on December 14, 2022 [40 favorites]

Best answer: YouTube video of the technique.
posted by BoscosMom at 7:51 PM on December 14, 2022 [3 favorites]

I'm team meat of the thumb as well, but it does make it sore when you eat as many as I like to. I saw it mentioned that covering stubborn shells with a towel and experimenting with hitting them with a rolling pin at just the right level of force may yield acceptable results. Curious to see what others come up with.
posted by Perko at 7:52 PM on December 14, 2022

Use the half shell from the easy ones to open the more difficult ones, just twist.

Seconding something like this - I find one easy one to open, where I can just pry apart the two shells with my fingers, and then I save one of the shells as the "opener" for all the rest - slide the opener shell in between the nutmeat and the shell on one side for all the others and push it in as far as it will go. That usually pries the shells on the new nut apart enough to crack it open all the way.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:07 PM on December 14, 2022 [3 favorites]

There are pliers which open when you squeeze the handles together, such as this.

I think you could do better with a set which had flatter jaws, and it would only be 10-15 minutes to file the linked pliers down, but you might not need to.
posted by jamjam at 8:10 PM on December 14, 2022

Maybe just try to be a little less forceful with the nutcracker? That's my method.
posted by Redstart at 8:28 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

I was surprised to realize that I didn't actually know. But, having just tried it out, pulling them apart by holding them between the middle of your thumb and the middle of your first finger along the opening on one hand and then pulling on one side with the middle of your first finger on the other hand is what I seem to naturally do. (No good ideas for the ones that are entirely shut.)
posted by eotvos at 8:28 PM on December 14, 2022

I'm on team meat of the thumb for the easy ones. For those that are more difficult, I put the point of a table knife in the gap, and twist. Easy peasy.
posted by JonathanB at 8:41 PM on December 14, 2022

Using the shell of one to open another was a total game changer for me, so I'm nthing that suggestion.
posted by BlahLaLa at 8:56 PM on December 14, 2022 [2 favorites]

I guess I'm some kind of savage or something, but I just open those suckers with the top edge of my lower teeth. This method has never failed me. Bonus: When you're mainlining pistachios (and, seriously, who among us ...), the teeth method is the fastest method.
posted by Dr. Wu at 9:02 PM on December 14, 2022 [6 favorites]

Either another shell, or a table knife. Put the knife in the little opening and twist to force the sides apart. A small flat bladed screwdriver works as well.
posted by zengargoyle at 9:29 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

Note that whitelotus mentions trying the half shell option in the question:

I tried inserting spent shells in the crack as suggested by the internet but it didn't work well.

If you’re suggesting that as an answer, maybe focus on technique?
posted by zamboni at 10:23 PM on December 14, 2022

I use the meat of multiple fingers. I squeeze the "sides" of the crack between a thumb and forefinger, which widens the crack, then open it all the way with my other hand with the thumb-meat technique levering off the "top" half of the shell while the meat of the other fingers pulls back from the top. The first part weakens the "hinge," decreasing wear at your meat-edge contacts, and the second finishes the job. If the nut is "sealed" or (rarely) just too hard to open, I dispose of it with only a small amount of guilt for throwing food away.
posted by rhizome at 10:57 PM on December 14, 2022

I don’t bother. If they don’t split easily I toss them. Since I buy my bag at Costco I figure it’s only a few cents wasted out of the total. (In two cups of pistachios only one or two is unsalvageable.) if your ratio is higher than this try a diffferent brand?
posted by St. Peepsburg at 11:23 PM on December 14, 2022

Pistachios in the shell get two tries from me: one with the meat of the thumb and one with the half shell. Any that fail this are compost and get tossed in with the empty shells.
posted by carrioncomfort at 5:48 AM on December 15, 2022

I tried inserting spent shells in the crack as suggested by the internet but it didn't work well.

It usually works well for me, except on the very tightest nuts, which I put aside until I've eaten all the others.

For the super tight ones, I examine the joint between the halves to find what appears to be the weakest point, put the very tip of a spent shell right on that point, and gently twist back and forth on it. It operates a bit like the chisel tip of a twist drill, boring its way in until there's an opening that's big enough to slide the rest of the shell tip into. At that point I start rocking it back and forth parallel to the split until the nut comes open.

Go too aggressively at it and the tool shell just snaps. Gentle persistence gets the job done.

I am driven to despair by the absurd amounts of food that other people waste, which is probably why I bothered to learn how to do this.
posted by flabdablet at 5:55 AM on December 15, 2022

The tough ones I just crunch between my molars with steadily increasing pressure (with the seam vertical, not horizontal.) The pressure forces the existing gap open wider. Now, while I have the bite pressure of a small shark and the willingness to use it, reasonable people might use regular pliers or a nutcracker this way - pressure on the corners of the seam - and get a similar result. (I do crunch open the sealed ones but they are often not very good and I don't really recommend bothering.)
posted by restless_nomad at 6:18 AM on December 15, 2022

Oh, your poor teeth! I set the difficult ones with just a small crack aside and open them with a nutpick, or break with a nutcracker, which I have because, Maine, lobster. Pistachios are small, so get the flat-sided nutcracker. Sometimes the bespoke tool is just the thing.
posted by theora55 at 7:00 AM on December 15, 2022

I use the point of a letter opener which lives on the kitchen table for just this porpose (I go through a lot of pistachios.) A pair of pliers is utilized for the rare, completely-closed nut (but I collect those in a small bottle and do them all at once, later). I can get the half-shell method to work, usually, and do it that way, sometimes. The tool the OP linked to is intriguing!
posted by Rash at 8:35 AM on December 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

I use my top teeth, bite into the crack and pull it open with my thumb and forefinger.
posted by Mavri at 9:06 AM on December 15, 2022

I smash them on the table with the bottom of a heavy whisky glass. What.
posted by RedEmma at 11:36 AM on December 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

I wonder if your heavy-duty stainless steel nutcracker is too heavy-duty for this task. I use the type theora55 linked to above, with fairly gentle pressure, and it works just fine.
posted by Redstart at 11:57 AM on December 15, 2022

Response by poster: Pistachios are expensive (I don't have access to something like a Costco) so I've been eating almonds which are cheaper, don't produce anxiety about wastage and don't wreck my nails/thumbs.

I'm amazed at the people in here who use their teeth. I don't think my geriatric teeth are up to it, nor can I afford the dental bills.

The next time I get a bag of pistachios, I'll try the half-shell method again. Maybe my technique was wrong? I'm not sure if I want to invest in a new nutcracker as they're not cheap and there's no guarantee of them working well for me.
posted by whitelotus at 4:50 PM on December 15, 2022

Response by poster: Ok, I found a cheap and smaller nutcracker online and have ordered it. I hope it works when it arrives. Maybe I'll avoid pistachios for now and eat cheaper nuts.
posted by whitelotus at 5:20 PM on December 15, 2022

Response by poster: The cheap nutcracker did not work. I guess I'll stick to almonds and walnuts.
posted by whitelotus at 11:57 PM on February 4, 2023

Vise-grip pliers make excellent nutcrackers because the force they apply rises extremely rapidly as their jaws approach the locked-closed position, and you can adjust locked-closed to happen at any of a wide range of jaw separations.

If you ever found a pistachio that a properly set pair of even very cheap locking pliers could not crack open easily without damaging the kernel, I'd be super surprised.

You can even get little ones that would not look out of place in the kitchen utensils drawer.
posted by flabdablet at 4:00 AM on February 12, 2023

I went googling for "pistachio opener" and while most of them look like poor tools, it also put me on the trail of actual tools. In my case it was a small pair of snap-ring pliers, whose jaws spread apart when you squeeze. Just degrease the heads with a scrub of Simple Green and rubbing alcohol and I'd have no problem using them for food.
posted by rhizome at 12:59 PM on February 12, 2023